SPECIALIZED TRAINING

ipcm® Academy Will Expand its Training Offer with a Module on Plastic Coating

Monica Fumagalli ipcm®

Plastic became a coatable material in the 1970s. With the development of increasingly advanced technologies, even this niche sector of the industrial painting field now requires highly specialised operators: this is why ipcm® Academy has decided to expand its training offer to include a new module dedicated to plastic coating, presented for the first time in May by Luca Maitan, a leading expert in the sector. In this interview, he explained how he decided to organise his one-day lesson and the positive but also critical aspects of such a structured training course.

Maitan, you have been in the coating business for over forty years as the owner of a company specialising in the treatment of plastics. What do you think about training in this specific area?

I think that not only classroom training, but

© ipcm also and above all practical training is crucial: learning the basics is important, but so is dealing with the problems that arise daily in a company. It would also be ideal for the trainees to have time in between lessons to better grasp what they have learned, which is even easier and especially more effective after applying it in practice.

Did you already have some teaching experience?

Yes, on one occasion I had the opportunity to meet with university students and I periodically organise in-house courses for both my own team and for customers who decide to implement our systems.

How does one prepare for a lesson to be delivered in a single day?

I prepared a handout with numerous slides to alternate detailed explanations with more

© ipcm practical examples, with the aim of getting the participants more involved, especially since the online mode seems to be more dispersive than the face-to-face mode. This is why we are planning to organise the plastic coating module of the autumn session not only in person – if Covid rules allow it – but also at the factory, so that the trainees can see first-hand the object of the lesson.

What critical issues did you encounter?

The most interesting, but also complicated aspect of the coating industry is its variety: it is impossible to cover all applications in a few examples. The heterogeneity of the sector corresponds to the heterogeneity of the ipcm® Academy training course’s participants. The difficulty of teaching trainees who come from different sectors, from companies with different types of production and painting requirements, from different departments,

© ipcm

Luca Maitan

and from different education backgrounds (from people who went to university and to those who have acquired experience directly in the field) lies in making the explanations comprehensible to all. This is why interaction with students is so important: only through their feedback can one understand to what extent they are acquiring relevant skills. In fact, for the next session, I will prepare a test to assess what has been learned at the end of the day.

As a company owner, would you recommend this course to your employees?

Yes, absolutely. The coating of plastics, like that of other materials such as metal and wood, is constantly evolving and its technologies are always being updated. One of the ways to keep up to date is to attend well-organised training courses such as those of ipcm® Academy.

The New ipcm®_Academy Course Starts Again in September in Hybrid Mode

The ipcm®_Academy course aimed at training professional Industrial Surface Finishing Process Technologists starts again on 22 September with a new session. A new lecture will be added to the topics already on the programme. The course will have a total duration of 100 hours, divided into twelve days, including four days of practical activities and one day dedicated to the final exam.

A new lesson

The main innovation for this year’s second session is the addition of a one-day lecture on coil coating, scheduled for 24 November and delivered by three new lecturers with over twenty years of experience in the field1 . As well as the one dedicated to the coating of plastics, introduced at the beginning of 2022, this is an extra day outside the Industrial Surface Finishing Process Technologist training course, designed to offer any interested parties the opportunity to further deepen their knowledge of surface treatments.

Frequency options

The course will take place both in person at the Innovhub – Oils and Fats Division premises in Milan, and online, according to the needs of each participant (with the exception of the four days when practical activities are scheduled). In addition to enrolling for the complete course, it is possible to take part in the individual training days of which the course is composed. In this case, a certificate of participation will be issued.

Financing options

Thanks to the collaboration with ASP Mazzini in Cinisello Balsamo, the training courses offered by ipcm®_Academy can count on various financing options: Training vouchers made available by the Lombardy Region and activated directly by companies; Training financed by the endowment system of the Lombardy Region for unemployed or redundant persons; Interprofessional funds, through company membership and participation in company and intercompany training plans.

Click here to read the full programme: https://bit.ly/3Pi2hE1

For further information: https://ipcmacademy.com/

1 https://www.ipcm.it/en/open/ipcm/2022/75/134-136.aspx